Faction:
Royal Navy
Class:
Thunderer-class Superheavy Battleship (Modified Type L2 Battleship)
Background:
HMS Thunderer is the Tier X Premium battleship in Wargaming’s World of Warships, officially released on 16 September 2019 with Patch 0.8.8. Thunderer in-game is a hypothetical post-World War II modernization of the L2-class Battleship developed in the 1920s. The L2 was a design scheme developed by the Royal Navy using lessons learned after World War I in general, and the Battle of Jutland in particular. This design in turn would lead to the development of the G3-class Battlecruisers and N3-class Battleship (had the latter been built, it would’ve likely been known as the Saint George-class) before their cancellation in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty.
Thunderer’s post-war design features Lattice masts, which reflect post-World War II architecture, while sporting eight 457mm/45 (18”) Mark II guns in four twin turrets, with secondary and Anti-Air armament composing of sixteen 5.25” (134mm) dual Purpose guns in eight twin Mark II turrets (the same gun type used as the main gun on the Dido-class Light Cruiser), 104 Bofors 40mm guns in various configurations, and eight 20mm Oerlikons in four twin turrets, making her a formidable opponent to face from sea and airborne threats.
Namesake:
Thunder is the sound caused by lightning.
Historically, five warships commissioned by the Royal Navy bore the name of Thunderer. The first, a Hercules-class third-rate Ship of the Line launched in 1760, took part in a naval action on 17 July 1761, where it fought and captured the French ship of the line Achille and frigate Bouffone off Cadiz during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763).
The second, a Culloden-class third-rate Ship of the Line commissioned in 1793 would take part in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1802, 1803-1815), taking part in the Fourth Battle of Ushant (also known as the Glorious First of June), the Battles of Cape Finisterre and Trafalgar, and the Dardanelles Campaign.
The third ship to bear the name was a Canopus-class second-rate Ship of the Line launched in 1831, who took part in Europe’s response to the Oriental Crisis of 1840, during the Second Turco-Egyptian War (1839-1841). She would be renamed HMS
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Which Legendary british ship would you like to see in the near future. Take into account play style
Conqueror more HE focused bb plays like a big King George V
Thunderer more AP focused bb plays like a big Warspite
I personally want Thunderer.
Now I know there have been similar posts, but I got to thinking recently about how Alaska might be introduced into the game. Personally, I'd want her to be a gatcha ship, of course as she's the unique CB to have been actually built IRL. I dont know enough about other projects to know what ships might have been in progress, and as such also able to be made gatcha ships, bit I am more familiar with some of WoWs super cruisers, which got me thinking about how we might see them made in game.
I'd like to see some CBs aren't DR, and the rational part of me that isn't a USN biased fan(that part would love her to be UR as she's unique as the only serving Cb to my knowledge irl) thinks Alaska would be a good one, if made quite similar to Cheshire, as she was just a glorified AA barge and escort, something Cheshire serves quite a nice niche in.
But that got me thinking about how some of the other CBs in WoWs could be introduced, and from there, what we might see this coming year.
Personally, I dont want to see another DR CB, and so I'd pick something like Kronshtadt as a normal PR. To go with it, I'd also likely pick one of the new Russian CVs as there's little chance of getting one as gatcha and it'd be nice to round off their fleet capability, again, I'd leave it PR but I dont know which I'd pick tbh, probably one of the two tier VIIIs.
That leaves three or four more slots, and as I'd rather see only one DR from the season, I'd lean toward making it a RN ship. I'd likely go with either Thunderer, a very hard hitting HE battleships that could possible contend with the top dogs of NJ and FDG, or perhaps Druid, a difficult DD to interpret as she lacks torpedoes. She is though, a very good gunboat, so I might choose to give her a second DD gun mount, effectively giving her MG+1 but controllable by what guns she mounts. Both I think are solid DR ships that could help relieve the stress of HMS players being effectively ignored for so long while adding an interesting ship to play with.
That leaves me with not many more ideas, personally. I'd like to see something from EU or Vichy/Iris factions to give them some love, but part of me almost wants to see one of the Pan-Asian capitol ships added to give Dragon Emporey SOME main fleet presence, there's 2 BBs and a CV to choose from, but I'm honestly indifferent on which it could be, personally.
I almost wish there were more subs in WoWs, a sentence I'm sure has been never spoken before, as we might get a chance to see a
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^- ^WW2 ^Tweets ^from ^1942 ^(@RealTimeWWII) ^| ^March ^28, ^2020
HMS Thunder Child destroyed two, possibly three tripods during a suicidal attack while protecting refugees. Relevant part of the story.
Obviously the USS Iowa would fare much better, and I have no doubt it would destroy the three tripods without any trouble. The Martians then make destroying the battleship an increasingly important priority. They start with 4 tripods at once, then 5, 6, 7...
Round 1: Iowa as of 1943:
- 9 × 16 in (406 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns
- 20 × 5 in (127.0 mm)/38 cal Mark 12 guns
- 80 × 40 mm/56 cal anti-aircraft guns
- 49 × 20 mm/70 cal anti-aircraft cannons
Round 2: Iowa as of 1984:
- 9 × 16 in (406 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns
- 12 × 5 in (127.0 mm)/38 cal Mark 12 guns
- 32 × BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles
- 16 × RGM-84 Harpoon Anti-Ship missiles
- 4 × 20 mm/76 cal Phalanx CIWS
Depending on ammunition available for the guns I actually think Round 2 Iowa might fare worse after it runs out of missiles. Each one is probably way overkill for a single tripod. There are other benefits to the refit but once the martian numbers start increasing I think the ship will miss having dozens of AA guns...
Bonus questions:
- Weakest naval vessel (present, past, fictional) that could solo the three tripods in the story and survive? Thunder Child might have done it but was destroyed in the process.
- Vary the number of tripods attacking at any one time (only in waves of 3, one at a time, many all at once right from the start?)
First of the Death's Heralds - 3 A Shroud of Hell
______
Sergeant Wilkes checked his gun repeatedly. He hated the time before battle, the waiting, the vulnerable moment before they reach solid ground. "Who's the bastards around this rock?"
"The Ladirotok, an entire species subjugated by the Hikor," another marine, Michael Greene, summarized a six page report in nine words.
Wilkes hummed in response, not caring for the details. "Alright, touchdown in eight seconds."
The torpedo slammed into a cruiser in orbit of Kyphax, the Ladirotok homeworld. They flooded the area with gas, unchanged as no one knew what it would do to the Ladirotok and fleet command didn't want to take chances with the unknown.
"This ship is radio silent! Three go to the engine room in the aft, the rest to the bow with me."
The ship was incredibly narrow, leaving it with one corridor going down the entire ship. This means that all crew would likewise be along that straight line and easy to subdue. One room at a time, they kicked in doors and sought out crew which were in hiding. The first few compartments were devoid of crew though.
By the time they were half way to the front of the ship, Wilkes found their first Ladirotok. "Contact!" He sent a cloud of painful gas into the room, blasting the target in the hopes of avoiding using his more lethal weapons. The arthropodal alien fell backwards, wheezing for air. Wilkes motioned for someone to take the alien into custody and they moved on. The rest of the rooms leading up to the front were also empty of crew, but Wilkes heard commotion behind the doors to the bridge.
So breach protocol one then, he placed a small blasting charge in front of the door and backed up five meters. When everyone else was behind reasonable cover, he pressed the remote button, "breach!" The door was knocked forward and fell to the ground, revealing eight Ladirotok and a Hikor captain.
Greene charged in, leaving a trail of smoke as gas emanated from his armor. Wilkes and the others followed behind, axes out to avoid shooting the communications panel that they were after. "Captain down!" Greene shouted as the Hikor captain breathed too deeply, falling to its knees and coughing, eventually coughing up blood onto the floor.
The Ladirotok were sturdier though, fighting back against the boarding party. Wilkes b
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